England loses

On our way back from seeing a Poe’s “The Mask of the Read Death” we saw a store called ASDA. Right below that it said it was part of the Wal-Mart family. Now at home, Wal-Mart is usually so crowded I tend to avoid it but over here you would’ve thought we found water in the desert. We all ran inside and finally got to do some one stop shopping where socks, candy, electronics, and coathangers could all be gotten. It was very refreshing after having to search for all the little nuanced stores scattered throughout London to buy goods previously.

Yesterday, I went with a couple people on a boat tour of the Thames and we got to see a lot of the old docklands that are now being redeveloped into nice housing units along with all of the other riverside sites.

After that we went to a club to watch the Rugby World Cup where England lost to South Africa. I’ll be honest, I was hoping for riots in the streets and people looting stores so I could have nice pictures and good stories to tell, but instead everyone just moped off back home.

There is also an arts/neighborhood festival in the Bloomsbury area which I walked around today. They had free-trade organic underwear for sale in one of the booths. I didn’t have any cash on me so I couldn’t make a purchase but people over here are wild about the environment. I’m impressed with the huge amounts that are recycled and all of the resources that they conserve, it has really shown me how wasteful I am. However, I have read about how in some communities if you have more than one bag of trash for pickup you must pay five pounds for each additional one. Also, officials there can search your garbage and if they find any recyclable materials you can be fined. That’s an exciting job to have.

Lastly, we booked our flight to Rome for our independent travel time. Keith, Rachel, Bridget, Martin, and I will be in Italy for a week, so if you have traveled there and have recommendations please email me. I love random email updates from people and if you are reading my blog I’d love for you to post a comment so I can see who all is reading it.